Martyna Starosta, AKA The Film Detective, from New York shares an interview with two members of a transformative justice collective. We in Black Orchid are very interested in developing ways to challenge oppressive dynamics within organizations as a necessary tool for developing equality among revolutionaries as much as is possible before the revolution. We are hoping this post will spark discussion among people who are interested in transformative justice models, or have worked with them in the past, on what works and what doesn’t, particularly in the context of an outward-oriented struggle.

My comrades and I had a lot of heated discussions about the surprisingly persistent figure of the “male anarchist hero” and the often outraging paradox of patriarchal behavior in anti-oppression working groups.

I recently interviewed the Brooklyn based collective Support New York about this question. In this conversation, the volunteers Kat and Milo analyzed harmful patterns of behavior in radical communities and talked about their methods to transform these patterns.

Support New York is dedicated to heal the effects of sexual assault and abuse within the radical community. The collective focuses on meeting the needs of the survivor, and holding accountable those who have perpetrated harm. The volunteers also strive for a larger dialog within the community about consent, mutual aid, and challenging the society’s narrow definition of abuse.

Even though Support New York operates within a narrow local radius, it can serve as an inspiring case study of community empowerment and transformative justice.